But supporters of a more expensive monorail idea say the scheme, which would effectively bypass the one-way system in the town centre, will do little to address gridlock during peak hours.

More than six months ago a £30,000 report was commissioned to evaluate a monorail and other transport solutions, but it found in favour of using manually-operated buses instead of anything more elaborate. Injecting a monorail into Guildford’s infrastructure would cost in the region of £22 million, almost 10 times the cots of the bridge.

The report was the third in the last five years undertaken at taxpayers’ expense, including a £22,000 report in 1999. They all found the monorail to be unlikely to work without considerable public subsidy.

Carr West, which specialises in ultra light rail systems, withdrew its monorail plans in December 2000 due to a lack of political support and the uncertain future of the plan, in order to concentrate on more definite plans elsewhere – namely Portsmouth.

Guildford transport officials will now look at two bridges – one crossing the river north of Bridge Street and another crossing the railway near the University of Surrey to carry buses and cyclists away from the one-way system.

This would mean buses travelling east to west would cross the railway into Walnut Tree Close before heading into town and then cross the river close to the Odeon cinema into the Bedford Road area.

Another problem is traffic backing up as it leaves Walnut Tree Close, so new traffic signals may be used at the junction with Bridge Street, according to the Local Transport Plan Group manager, George Burnett, but he stressed the “ephemeral” nature of the proposals at the moment.

Steven Bennett, from the Woking firm that carried out the latest study, said it looked at five options including light rail, ultra light rail, elevated guided transit (monorail), guided buses and non-guided buses. “A full blown light rail system is not likely to be appropriate for Guildford,” he said. “It only works in towns with populations of 200,000 to 250,000 people. Guildford has 60,000 people.”

He added that a monorail scheme would have a “major environmental impact on the town” as well as being highly expensive, but he conceded the bridge plan could also run into problems. “There are uncertainties. Negotiating with Railtrack could be subject to delay and a certain amount of risk,” he told the meeting.

Robert Blundell (Lib Dem, Friary and St Nicolas) again made a call for new railway stations at Merrow and Park Barn, which had previously been shown to be viable. And Tom Sharp (Lib Dem, Guildford South) was “a little troubled” by the strength of the rejection of the monorail in the report.

Joe Bullock (Lab, Guildford West) said: “This proposal will be very much welcomed by people who live in the western corridor. The objections were based on the condition that residents did not want to see any more land taken.”